The present invention relates to a ceiling panel and more specifically to a combination of a sheet metal ceiling panel with a plastic lens and with means for holding the plastic lens in place in the ceiling panel.
Several forms of such combination are known in the art, as for instance described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,082, issued Dec. 7, 1982 and assigned to the same assignee.
Such ceiling panels may have various lengths and widths, but they are usually fifty inches long for a four foot light fixture and about three and one half or seven inches wide. The panel is slotted about 3 inches wide for a single-lamp fixture and wider for a double lamp fixture.
Cutting away long sections from the ceiling panel, such as approximately 46 to 48 inches, weakens the panel considerably since it has lost its rigid structure and is suspended only at two ends.
Also, if only a single light fixture is involved which requires a narrow slot in a wide ceiling panel, a considerable amount of lens material would be wasted if it were simply placed cross the entire width of the wide ceiling panel, that is it would have to be approximately 61/2 inches wide of which only 3 inches would be visible.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a ceiling panel with lens which will overcome the disadvantages described above.